April 23, 2012 | 11:15 AM

The University of Florida is cutting its computer science department at the same time it’s boosting the athletic department budget. The real blame, Steven Salzburg writes, lies with legislative budget cuts. UPDATE: The University of Florida says it is restructuring, not eliminating, the computer science department. The university also notes the athletic budget is separate. UF computer science students are concerned the cuts would eliminate research and graduate programs for computer engineering.

Wow, no one saw this coming. The University of Florida announced this past week that it was dropping its computer science department, which will allow it to save about $1.7 million. The school is eliminating all funding for teaching assistants in computer science, cutting the graduate and research programs entirely, and moving the tattered remnants into other departments.